One photo shows Sellina Clement, a street vendor from Port Moresby, who learnt she was HIV-positive when her youngest child was two.

Another image of Camilo Fadu, who has HIV, and his young son was shot while Camilo waited to find out if his son was also infected. He later tested negative.

Steele-Perkins says it was hard not to be moved by their plight, especially those sufferers ostracised by their family and community because of the disease.

''When someone breaks down in front of you and you are moved too, it is hard to work and you question if you should,'' he says.

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''You should, as it conveys their story more potently.''

Steele-Perkins's photos are part of Access to Life, an exhibition of more than 250 images of people with HIV/AIDS, their families and health care workers in countries including India, Russia and South Africa.

It was launched on Monday night by the Governor-General, Quentin Bryce, at the Powerhouse Museum in Ultimo.

Access to Life was initiated by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, opened in Washington DC in 2008, and has since been exhibited around the world, but Steele-Perkins's photos are new.

The executive director of the Pacific Friends of the Global Fund, Bill Bowtell, says the photos showed how hope could displace despair when people had access to effective HIV treatments. ''HIV is as much a result of politics, prejudice and superstition as it is of the virus itself,'' he says.

''Had Western countries woken up and intervened earlier, we could have avoided the unnecessary deaths of millions of people.''

But Steele-Perkins says cholera and malaria sufferers do not receive the same attention because people in richer countries did not have experience of these illnesses.

''Also, having any of those diseases is a lot easier in the West, as early treatment will cure them of the illnesses quickly and easily,'' he says.

He also suggests HIV and AIDS receives more attention in the West because drug companies make a lot of money out of drugs to combat the disease. Replicas of the Grim Reaper costume and Condoman that featured in public health campaigns and an AIDS memorial quilt will also be exhibited at the Powerhouse Museum in the accompanying exhibition, HIV & AIDS 30 years on: the Australian story.

''Pretty well anyone over 30 remembers the shock of seeing the Grim Reaper ad and its message that AIDS could affect the heterosexual community,'' says the curator, Anni Turnbull.

Access to Life and HIV & AIDS 30 years on: the Australian story are at the Powerhouse Museum. World AIDS Day is Saturday.